Organization:Open Data for Resilience Initiative
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| Abbreviation | OpenDRI |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2011 |
| Founder | Robert Soden |
| Type | initiative |
| Legal status | no official status |
| Purpose | apply open data to disaster risk management |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Parent organization | GFDRR |
| Website | opendri |
The Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI) was launched in 2011 by the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) to apply the principles of open data to the challenges of reducing vulnerability to natural hazards and the impacts of climate change. OpenDRI offers World Bank projects and governments technical assistance around how to use open data to improve the collection, sharing and use of data for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation.[1]
History
Following the 2010 Haiti earhquake, a worldwide crowdsourced mapping effort through OpenStreetMap led to the production of an accurate map of the country in just a few weeks. This result catalyzed a rethinking of community mapping and open data within the World Bank and several other international institutions. As recovery and reconstruction unfolded in Haiti, a second set of issues emerged. Thousands of NGOs and dozens of internationalinstitutions were all collecting data, generating information about the context in which they worked. Without a catalogue of who was producing what information on what problem, ministries and internationals alike struggled to find the data that they needed to make decisions.
The GFDRR team set about deploying a mechanism that would allow for the collation of data across the myriad actors in Haiti. In 2011, GFDRR began to package these open data efforts under one label: the Open Data for Resilience Initiative (OpenDRI). Teams from GFDRR began to offer World Bank regions and client governments technical assistance around how to use open data to catalyze better information on risks. Since then, OpenDRI has supported open data community projects in more than 30 countries, including the establishment of the Kathmandy Living Lab in Nepal.[2]
Activities
Activities of OpenDRI can be divided into i) support to the development of open source and open data tools, ii) support to World Bank and development projects; iii) support to research and innovation in the fields;
Open Source and open data tools
OpenDRI supports the development of various sofwtares including:
- the open source spatial data platform Geonode;
- InaSafe an extension of the QGIS editor enabling users to create realistic impact scenario from exposure and hazard data;
- ThinkHazard! a website that provides for a give location, the level of intensity of risks related to natural hazards;
- Open Data for Resilience Index to track and evaluate the state of key open datasets for disaster risk management country by country;
World Bank and development projects
Open DRI manages the Open Cities project that supports collaboration between local communities of mappers and local institutions in order to produce and share relevant data and insights for disaster risk management and urban planning.
Research and innovation
OpenDRI has published various reports and guides related to its supported projects and tools, and is also regularly publishing studies on disruptive technologies such as crowdsourced mapping or satellites data.[3]
References
- ↑ https://www.gfdrr.org/sites/default/files/publication/opendri_fg_web_20140629b_0.pdf Open Data for Resilience Initiative Field Guide
- ↑ http://www.kathmandulivinglabs.org/about
- ↑ https://opendri.org/resource/
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